Improvement in printing revenue-stamps



dinard tatr @stent Clipline.

' SYLVANIA.

Latas 'Patent No. 92,593, fated .hay 13, 1869.

IMPROVEMENT IN PRINTING- REVENUE-STAMPS, acc., IN TWO OR MORE COLORS..

The Bchedule referred to in these Letters Patent and making part of the same.

To all whom it may concern.'

Be it known that we, JOHN EAnLE andALFRED B. STEEL, of Philadelphia, in the State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in the'Mauncr of Producing RevenueeStamps, Printed in '.lwo or more Colors atpone Operation; and that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the laccompanying drawings, making a part of this specification, in which- Figure l represents what we term a female plate;

lligure 2 represents what we term a male plate;

Figure 3 representsa form 7 for inking the female plate; and

Figure 4 represents a form for inking the male plate.

lhe object and purpose of our invention, are- Y li'irst, to attain a prccss ofprinting that will secure perfect and lmvarying registration of two or more colors at one impression, by means of 'two or morel united plates, the'suraees of which are engraved with any designs, in the usual manner of steel or copperplate engraving; and

Second, to apply this process to the manufacture of printed stamps, s'uch as those used by the United States Government in the Postal and Internal Revenue Depa1tments,hywhich process they receive great additional security against counterfeiting, by such un-v form registration of two or more colors.

-lhe application of our process would aiibrd great protection against the fraudulent reuse of cancelled stamps, by making one or more of the registered colors fpgitive, while the remaining color or colors shall, or me indelible.

Gancellitmn, by writing, printing, or cutting with inked edges of stamp-presses, being made obligatory over a certain part ofthe stamptop,ccntre, or bottom, and such designated part heilig in fugitive color, any attempt to remove' the cancellation will be rendered abortive, as that portion of the stamp will at once show, by its impaired character, compared with the balance of the stamp, that it has been tampered with.

The process is equally applicable to bank-notes, bonds,

checks, coupons, or certificates, or any other thing re quiring exact registration in4 two ormore colors, as to revenue-stamps, and we so propose to apply and use it, and with or without the use of fugitive. inks, as may he desired.

v To enable others skilled in the art to make and use our invention, we will proceed to describe the same in connection with the accompanying drawings.

A steel or copper plate, A, of proper superficial area and thickness, upon which is engraved such work, and in such places as it maybe desirable to print from in any particular color, is prepared, and then this plate is cut entirely through where the blanks are intended to be, as at a a, Src., and which space will be occupied by the second or male plate. Pieces of steel or copper are next prepared, and engraved upon, and made to lit precisely the open spaces a a, both in superficial area and in thickness. These pieces, b b, are then fixed accurately and immovably -on a back plate, which we style the male plate B.

The color of the ink used on these pieces b may differ from that used on the plate A.

To print neatly from these plates, forms of metal, or other substance, C D, are used, and so made as to lill up the blank spaces or places of theirrespective plates, and even with the surfaces of their plates; and when said forms are laid in position, the plates may he inked in, respectively, with the colors intended to be printed, the forms preventing the printer from leaving a mass of ink on the perpendicular' sides of each plate.

-After the plates are filled in, and wiped, in the usual manner of steel or copper-plate printing, the male plate B is laid on the bed or plank ofthe press. Upon this plate is then adjustedA the female plateA, one fitting exactly in the other, and presenting a surface as of one plate, hut with different-colored inks. The paper is then placed over them, and, on pulling it through the ordinary'roller-printing press,or subjecting it to vertical pressure, a registered impression, of undeviating accuracy of the whole engraving or design, o1' series of engravings or designs, is invariably obtained; and every impression must necessarily bea duplicate of its fellows.

Should three colors be required, the same-process is applied, leaving in the female plate A the blanks for the third, as well as the second colors; and a second male plate is prepared in the same manner as the first male plate, B, while the first male plate, B, has blanks cut through it, to admit of the fitting of the second male plate with the first or female plate A. The three plates, having been inkedin and wiped on their three separate forms, as above described, are adjusted together, and printed by one impression, producing three perfectly-registered colors. Y

Having thus fully described our invention,

What we claim therein as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

Iu combination with two or more engraved plates, made and fitted together as described, and from which printing is to he done, by a single impression, in two or more colors,the separately inking of said plates by means of forms/1 to prevent their vertical sides or walls from being covered with the ink, or causing blurred impressions, substantially as set forth.

JOHN EARLE. ALFRED B. STEEL.

Witnesses WM. J. Dittmann, Anorvzo l). RUrHER-Fonn. 

